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Bird Supply Asheville NC

Local resource for Bird Supply in Asheville. Includes detailed information on local businesses that provide access to bird food, bird supply, cages, bird seed, bird toys, bird swings, as well as advice and content on information regarding suppliers and retail.

Birdseed Types

Bird Feeding: What Birdseed is Best?

by BWD editor Bill Thompson, III

Just like people, birds have certain food preferences. The good news for you is that people have been feeding birds for many decades, so you get the benefit of all that trial-and-error experimentation. These days, we, the bird-feeding public, already know what foods birds prefer. At the feeders this means seeds.

But which seeds are the best? In a nutshell, sunflower seed. So if you are just starting out in feeding, I suggest you buy some black-oil sunflower seed at a local hardware store, feed store, specialty bird store, or even at a major retail chain store.

There is a vast array of other foods you can offer birds besides birdseed. To view a few of the most commonly offered non-seed items that birds enjoy click here.

Following are the best kinds of seed, in descending order of popularity.

Black-oil Sunflower.

Gray- or white-striped sunflower seed used to be the king of the bird foods. Now it's black-oil sunflower seed. Smaller than gray-striped sunflower seed, with a thin, all-black, papery shell, black-oil seed can be cracked by sparrows, juncos, and even small-billed goldfinches. It's a better buy, too, because 70 percent of each seed is meat, compared with only 57 percent for striped sunflower. Its high oil and fat content helps birds get through cold winter nights. Black-oil sunflower seed is the heart of any feeding program because it's accepted by the greatest variety of birds. You can feed it out of hanging feeders, in hoppers, on tables, or scattered on the ground-preferably all of the above.

Sunflower Hearts.

If I were to pick only one food to offer at my feeding station, it would be sunflower hearts. Yes, they are expensive, but a bag of sunflower hearts (no shells, just the meat of the seed) lasts more than three times as long as a bag of seeds with shells. Not only that, every species that comes to my feeding station will eat them. Being hulless, hearts are accessible to weaker-billed birds like siskins, redpolls, and Carolina wrens. Goldfinches love them.

Compared with seeds with hulls, hearts are relatively free of waste and of the messy shells that pile up to smother grass and rot decks. The only drawback is that the hearts should not be exposed to wet weather; thus, they should be fed only from feeders. They rot quickly when damp. On dry days, it's fine to spread a handful on the bird table, but otherwise, stick to weatherproof feeders. You'll be surprised how little it takes to feed a lot of birds.

Mixed Seed.

Mixed seed, often generically referred to as "wild birdseed," is a vital addition to any feeding program. But not all mixes are created equal, and what is eagerly eaten in Arizona can go to waste in New York. A prime example is milo, a round, reddish seed that looks like a BB pellet. You'll see it, along with wheat, oats, and even barley, in grocery-store mixes. In the East, milo and wheat are spurned by most birds e...

Other Bird Foods

Looking for an alternative to bird seed? Try these options.

by BWD editor Bill Thompson, III

Peanut Butter.

Every feeder bird will eat peanut butter, especially woodpeckers, chickadees, and titmice. But it's not a food that you want to offer in great quantities, for two reasons. First of all, peanut butter is sticky and messy, so, like suet, it should be offered in a way that birds will not get it all over their feathers. Second, although it may be a myth that peanut butter sticks to the roof of a bird's bill, it's not inconceivable that a big wad of sticky PB could be difficult to swallow. For these reasons, we offer peanut butter in very small quantities when the weather is very cold. At other times of year we offer peanut butter as an ingredient in our bird pudding.

You can make a simple peanut butter feeder by drilling shallow one-inch holes in a piece of scrap wood, filling them with peanut butter, and hanging it up near your feeders. Gouge out a few toeholds underneath each hole to help the birds cling. If the food goes unrecognized, try sticking a few sunflower hearts in the peanut butter-the birds will soon get the idea.

Suet

Suet is the dense white fat that collects around beef kidneys and loins. You'll find it in grocery store meat counters. It's amazing how many different species eat suet. All the regular seed eaters--chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, woodpeckers--will eat it, as will wrens, sapsuckers, warblers, orioles, catbirds, creepers, and others. A little suet goes a long way.

Please feed responsibly! Avoid feeding lard-based foods to birds during the warm spring and summer months, when they can find ample and natural sources of nourishment themselves. Birds that gorge on suet and other lard-based recipies run the risk of developing gout. Suet is best served during the winter months, and especially during harsh weather conditions.

Suet Cakes

Many people take convenience a step farther and buy commercial suet cakes. Some of these blocks are great; some are not so great. Avoid commercial blocks that have whole seed, like sunflower and millet seed, melted into them with the shells on. These slippery fat-covered seeds are difficult for birds to crack, so they may just be discarded.

In my experience the fuss of rendering suet or the expense of buying suet cakes isn't justified by any greater enthusiasm on the part of the birds who eat it. They're just as happy with the meat-counter lumps. Suet cakes are convenient for humans more than anything else, which is why they are so popular.

Fruit

When I noticed yellow-bellied sapsuckers, robins, and pileated woodpeckers eating the last shriveled apples and pears in our orchard, I began offering halved apples impaled on short twigs of the dead branches we put up all around our feeder.

Local resource for woodpecker birdhouses in Asheville, NC. Includes detailed information on local businesses that provide access to woodpecker birdhouses, birdhouses, bird feeders, bird house plans, and bird house designs, as well as advice and content on bird house building, attracting birds, and bird house kids.